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Thursday, May 8, 2014

Did You Know?

So many of your favorite things were actually started as marketing ploys. It's true, it's true!

WHY Gillette WHY?

18 Things You Never Knew Started As Marketing Ploys

Here's one you didn't know: Nobody used to shave their armpits — that is, until Gillette told them they should.

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Buying a tax break

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The UK tax rate on profits made from UK patents is just 10%. The nominal US corporate tax rate is 35%. Because of that, US pharmaceutical company Pfizer has spent the last four months trying to acquire London-based AstraZeneca, the maker of heartburn drug Nexium and cholesterol-lowering Crestor. The problem, of course, is that neither AstraZeneca's board nor the British government seems particularly fond of the tax-avoidance play.

AstraZeneca seems to have the upper hand in negotiations. Pfizer's drug pipeline is weak and has been for sometime: its two latest cancer drugs debuted to lackluster sales, and it hasn't had a significant new drug released in a decade. To make matters worse, the patents on some of its biggest drugs are about to expire. The company also just reported a 15% drop in quarterly profits, which is never good, but is particularly bad in the middle of a partially stock-based acquisition attempt. Breakingviews' Neil Unmack thinks that Pfizer will have to "further loosen the purse strings" in order for its offer to be accepted by AstraZeneca.

Indeed, this deal has been in the hopper for months, with Pfizer slowly increasing its offer. The first whiff of the plan was in January, when Pfizer says it submitted a "preliminary, non-binding indication of interest", but AstraZeneca broke off talks. At the end of April, Pfizer tried again, and AstraZeneca rejected a new $98.9 billion offer. On Friday, AstraZeneca rejected an improved $106 billion bid. Now Pfizer is rumored to be preparing a new offer worth $113 billion, Reuters' Sudip Kar-Gupta and Ben Hirschler report.

Victor Fleischer writes that the transaction is just the latest proposed inversion, where "a multinational company like Pfizer, based in New York, becomes an expatriate by acquiring a smaller foreign target". FT Alphaville's James Mackintosh says that "the deal only makes sense with the benefit of the UK tax regime". UK politicians are trying their best to sound displeased with the idea of a putting a massive British (well, half Swedish) company, into foreign, tax-optimizing hands. However, they aren't really taking concrete steps to stop the deal from happening, either.

Pfizer makes the case that the combined company will pay taxes in the UK and pledges to keep 20% of the combined company's R&D force in the country. The company is, in essence, pitching itself to the UK as a corporate, taxpaying citizen as prepares to toss out its US passport. Britons, however, are less convinced. David Sainsbury says, Pfizer's plan "would involve the closure of many of its operations and a substantial reduction of its research and development" in the UK, costing British pharma a lot of jobs. Ben Walsh

On to today's links:

Right On
Fighting blight by charging for it - Marketplace

Data Points
150 US workers die each day due to working conditions - Bryce Covert

Servicey
How Americans get to work (hint: cars, cars, cars, and some work from home) - Derek Thompson

Study Says
Surprise! The unemployment rate is an inadequate measure of labor force slack - Jared Bernstein
Journalists are miserable, liberal, over-educated, under-paid, middle-aged men - Derek Thompson

Hilarious
What happens at an investment bank when don't lock your computer - Dealbreaker

Tech
Is the FCC's moves on net neutrality already stifling innovation in video and mobile payments startups? - Technology Review
Somewhat related: An explainer on the Internet of Things - Vox

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Shady Decisions At Sketchers

CtW Investment Group said shareholders should withhold support for two directors.

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Business Today: Wall St. ends mostly lower; Nasdaq down for third session

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05/8/2014
Reuters Election 2012 Daily round-up of the day's top news from the campaign trail, the White House and all the politics in between
Wall St. ends mostly lower; Nasdaq down for third session
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks mostly fell on Thursday with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closing lower, led by losses in the energy and utility sectors.
Could take 5-8 years to shrink Fed portfolio: Yellen
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve is in no rush to decide the appropriate size of its balance sheet, but if it ultimately shrinks it to a pre-crisis size, the process could take the better part of a decade, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said on Thursday.
Asia success still long shot for ambitious Fiat Chrysler
DETROIT (Reuters) - If Fiat Chrysler Automobiles wants to become a significant force in Asia, it needs to succeed in China. But its track record so far in the world's largest automobile market raises doubts about its ability to deliver on growth promises, analysts say.
Venture firm Atomico sues ex-employee, consultant for double-dipping
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Atomico Partners, a London-based venture firm founded by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom, is suing a former employee and consultant for secretly diverting potential Atomico investments to a venture firm that the two were building.
U.S. retailers benefit from warmer April as sales bounce back
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Spring was in full swing for some U.S. retailers, with shoppers spending again in April after the weather warmed up.
U.S. lawmakers air concerns over Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawmakers expressed concern about combining the top two U.S. cable operators at a congressional hearing Thursday to discuss Comcast's plan to merge with Time Warner Cable Inc.
Exclusive: U.S. banking regulators hire math geeks of their own
(Reuters) - A few years ago, famed financial engineer Andrew Lo built a computer model that allowed one of the biggest U.S. banks to figure out which customers were most likely to fall behind on credit-card payments.
GM recalls about 8,500 Buick, Chevy cars for brake problem
DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co said on Thursday it has recalled 8,590 Buick and Chevrolet sedans in North America to address a potential braking problem.
Glencore Xstrata names ex-BP boss Hayward as chairman
LONDON (Reuters) - Glencore Xstrata confirmed Tony Hayward as permanent chairman of the mining and commodities trading group, sealing the former BP chief executive's comeback from the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
Barclays axes 19,000 jobs, reins in Wall Street ambitions
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Barclays reined in its ambitions to be a Wall Street powerhouse on Thursday and signaled a return to its retail roots with a plan to hive off much of its investment bank and axe one in four jobs at the division.
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